3DTV: Stereoscopic Imaging for Medical Education

Understanding the spatial relationship within the human body is one of the most important challenges a physician faces in his or her medical education. Innumerable medical procedures exist, such as inserting a central line into the chest, which requires a detailed understanding of the spatial positions of the many structures within the thorax. Since a central line is inserted through the skin of the chest, the catheter needle must be carefully maneuvered through these structures until it is positioned into the subclavian vein. It is essential that the physician avoid injury to the important nerves to the upper limb, the adjacent subclavian artery, the pleural cavity cupola and the lungs. A small error can be life threatening.

Medical educational curricula attempts to convey this understanding via courses like Human Anatomy but students often end up merely memorizing the names of a plethora of bony structures, vascular segments, neural pathways and muscular structures. Anatomy is an enormously complex field of study and is one of the most challenging courses in the medical curriculum. The gross anatomy course at Stanford is allocated more lecture and lab time than ANY other course in the preclinical curriculum. Even with an intense focus on Anatomy, medical students need to reinforce learning of the detailed spatial relationships that will be required for the practice of medicine.

Traditionally, anatomists demonstrate human structures and relationships by displaying pre-dissected cadavers to a group of students. The space close to the specimen is very limited and when more than 4 or 5 students crowd around the specimen, those in the second and third tier or row try ineffectively to see the details being explained by the instructor and then questioned by the students.

This talk describes the development of a unique stereoscopic teaching facility [image 1], [image 2], specifically designed for teaching Anatomy and Surgery at Stanford University. I will also describe two different approaches for implementing stereoscopic television compatible with US broadcast television standards (NTSC). I will demonstrate functioning prototypes of each.